Have you ever read the international conventions that ban torture? Does it make a difference how they define torture?
I don't have the document in this computer, but I recall that it includes things as trivial as "insulting the captive or his race, nationality, or his relatives". Or any treatment that causes "fear or anxiety or embarrassment". In other words, almost anything can be defined as torture, depending upon how the captive "feels about his/her treatment". Is that what most people visualize when someone says "torture"? Probably not, but that is what happens when anti-West activists are allowed to use corrupt language and imagery to conflate all forms of interviews and interrogation with real torture. Why is there no rational or objective definition of torture? And why are the good guys held to impossible standards while nobody does anything about truly evil people who engage in the most extreme forms of torture including publicly distributed beheadings? U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson wrote that "The Constitution is not a suicide pact", but apparently the UN and Western Civilization have decided that they will invent and enforce a Western suicide pact in the name of cultural diversity, even if it destroys us Let me propose a more rational and objective definition of torture during the conduct of an interview or interrogation: 1. Torture is generally that which inflicts permanent, severe, or long-term physical damage or death; 2. Torture can also be a process that inflicts excruciating pain for an instant, or moderate pain for a long period (minor pain does not count); 3. Torture can also be a process that is known from past experience is LIKELY or guaranteed to create severe long-term psychological damage (i.e. craziness); 4. Torture is not something that is transitory or automatically resolved in a short time, whether mental or physical; 5. Torture is not anything that is routinely used in the training of our soldiers without lasting injury (which includes waterboarding, sleep deprivation, reduced food and water for a few days, exposure to cold, exposure to tear gas, etc); 6. Torture is not anything that experimenters would be willing do more than once (Peter Hitchens, a non-military civilian, voluntarily asked to be waterboarded and when he was not suffering enough after it was over, asked to be waterboarded again; whereas many military personnel have undergone many forms of low-level "torture" over and over.) How does this apply to the U.S.? We should, as many other countries have signed various international agreements, sign a treaty only if we can include a codicil or reservation that states we will only agree to the treaty jurisdiction if our reasonable definition is used to control our actions. We will also comply with all the reasonable terms of the treaties even if we don't sign the treaty. Naturally, the other side will simply ignore even the most important principles of all treaties whenever it suits them. It is long past time for us to stop rubber-stamping any ludicrous treaty or conditions just so we can "look good". We should negotiate the treaties or agreements so that they "do good". This is best achieved by educating the entire world during the treaty-writing process, rather than waiting until we are being prosecuted or handicapped by absurd provisions that should have been removed from the original drafts by opposition and negotiations. --- Randy __._,_.___ ------------------------------ Posted by: "beowulf" <[email protected]> ------------------------------ Visit Your Group <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/grendelreport/info;_ylc=X3oDMTJmbm42ZWRtBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDdnRsBHNsawN2Z2hwBHN0aW1lAzE0MTgyMjQxNTg-> [image: Yahoo! Groups] <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo;_ylc=X3oDMTJlM2ZsOW9sBF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawNnZnAEc3RpbWUDMTQxODIyNDE1OA--> • Privacy <https://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/groups/details.html> • Unsubscribe <[email protected]?subject=Unsubscribe> • Terms of Use <https://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/terms/> __,_._,___ -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
